Anthony Shadid is an absolute, absolute stud. One of the best, if not the absolute best, newspaper journalists working. His storytelling from Iraq was spell binding.

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He's chapter 9 in my book, "Morning Miracle." Sally Jenkins called him "the soul of the Post." Steve Fainaru called him "the bravest man I ever met." I quote a Shadid soliloquy in which he weighs the value of the reporting against the risk, and decides it's worth it. Years before that conversation, he'd already been shot once, at point-blank range, and left to die. He's no hyper-macho daredevil; he's soft-spoken, kind, shyly charming. He simply believes in the power of the sustained, accumulating work. That's why he left the Post, which was cutting back on daily foreign coverage, for the Times.

The Libyan government released four detained New York Times journalists Monday, six days after they were captured while covering the conflict between government and rebel forces in the eastern city of Ajdabiya. They were released into the custody of Turkish diplomats.

Like many Western journalists the four had entered the rebel-controlled eastern region of Libya without visas over the Egyptian border to cover the insurrection against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. They were detained by forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi in Ajdabiya.